Topic: Is account sale legal? (Read 363 times)

Well, theymos (or the forum) did state about decaying unspent sMerits but...

although sales are legitimate in this forum because there are no rules about that we as members of the forum here should not do that to anticipate DT giving redtrus to our account, just do the positive sell other than the account can still generate money and trust

That's how other concern users are there for. These bought accounts which can be monitored on seclog if they suddenly woke up or change account password or affiliated emails. Yes this is actually a grave concern since merits associated with this can not be distributed correctly since obviously they will abuse it for other accounts they are farming.

Better thing is continue to scout or find those who are abusing merits and report them directly. I dont think we can suggest to vaporize the merits used after a month since some could just relaxing and not active for some reason. So how about their gained smerit? Will gone due to this.

Since the days merit system began to run and when the bot to find out plagiarism was born in 2019, bought-accounts are almost useless. Good campaigns now don't accept bought accounts. It is not too hard to see differences between good accounts and bad ones, and bought accounts mostly show as bad because when newbies buy one account, they nearly don't know how to post, in particular good posts.

In addition to the above, there are risks of account permanent bans because of plagiarism in the past from previous owners. From own my understandings, I don't spend my money to buy accounts.

I know it is hard to grow a good account nowadays but buying one, nope (forget it is the best).

The law of the forum is the forum rules, and it's not stated in the forum that it's illegal, therefore it's not illegal.

Now, it's up to the members if they'll tag it or not because they have their own judgment which is not moderated by the forum.

I just shared what I saw with friends  If everyone is happy with their situation, it means no problem 

Is there a DT member who speaks your local language? These things need to controlled radically by the joint decisions of any local DT member, Merit source and maybe the local moderators.

Dont want to sound harsh but community suggestions are rarely taken up to administration. But it is always appreciated, even when we cannot do anything about it but live with it.

This was an example, once a week, such accounts change hands. You say merit system prevents changing hands but merites turned into a form of bargaining.


my suggestion is very simple !! Remove unused smerites after 1 month.

maybe i think wrong 


there are valuable comments... defending or not defending the system.

my suggestion is to use a fair forum and rank distribution

Regards...

One of the reasons of introducing the merit system was to prevent the process of buying accounts and then ranking up by farming posts and then use that to join new campaigns essentially defrauding them. What you say will defy that objective because once a user of an account uses those merits to rank up his new account he will jolly well have grown it to a decent rank for joining a campaign.

Merit was a side-effect of the account farming that used to go around in an uncontrolled fashion here. Those who did that are the ones who cried aloud at that time because they realized they had dug their own graves.

Also account sales are going to be negged at any suspicion of the person attempting to buy/sell. Specially if the person is of a rank. It is the only way to keep the forum clean from scammers growing and using the social connections that a person has used till date to scam someone who might know that username as their "friend" but now in the guise of that "friend" to scam them.

I'm not sure about that but, I think there should be  prohibited, in my point of view, being one of a bitcointalk.org member is an honor specially if you already have high rank, at the same time , what would the buyer gets from buying the account , yes maybe he can join campaigns , and gains money, but I think since he doesnt know the rules he will just post non sense post, and even annoys someone, for me it should not be legal or even try to sell your account,

Trading accounts will often to lead people to scam, while merit abuse doesn't seem to pose the same risk (from what I've seen.)  It might be a long and convoluted road, but it starts with the reasoning behind an individual wanting to buy an account in the first place.  Some want to buy an account because they are planning a scam, and want a trusted account.  I think these are probably the exception, not the rule.  

Why do most people want buy an account when it's free to build your own?  Most of the time it's because they see the potential to earn money here on the forum, and want to cash in on that potential.  If we scrutinize many of those who are tempted to buy an account we will probably see that they are incapable of developing a profitable account on their own.  Doing so requires writing skills, patience, and a significant amount of concern for the forum (or the ability to feign concern.)  Those who come here to cash in are not likely to care about the forum, and most lack patience.

Once they find themselves having purchased an account, and possibly paying a high price for the "right" account, now what?  They must still demonstrate the writing skills and involvement to qualify for a well paying signature job.  Many will find that the account that cost them a lot of money is only part of the equation, a small part.  Writing skills, patience, and concern for the community are still required to keep the account profitable.

Once they've come to that conclusion, their frustration with the inability to earn will likely lead them to attempt a scam.  I have had people with high ranking accounts ask me for a loans, and upon scrutiny I came to the suspicion that the accounts were likely purchased, the owner was unable to profit with the account, and now is looking for a "loan" (exit scam) to compensate him for the loss of purchasing the account in the first place.

These people would be better served learning how to develop an account on their own.  If they finally come to the conclusion that they are unable to do so, they have not suffered any monetary loss, and will not likely fall into the temptation to scam anyone.  Even if they do, they will not be in a position that would garner trust.

If you speak the language the thread is posted in, you should, if the thread is unlocked, post why a potential customer of this person should not buy a forum account. You can also post suggestions as to how a potential customer of that person can rank up their own account on their own.

Nope, because be seen as unuse today may still be use tomorrow for the purpose of which they were meant to be use.

If you have a clear case of merit sales and merit abuse, you can kindly forward your accusations as it will be look into by forum members. There are system made to cater for all valid accusations.

Wouldn't it be a good idea to regain unused merits ? Merit hunting both merit sell and account..

Account selling is legal here in forum considering that, there is no rule about it. But that will make you a not to trust person and lot of DT will put a red tag on those accounts.

With regards to the selling of merit's and to the people that are going to buy, just imagine they are having a hard time receiving merit so if they are going to buy, their merit count will just be stuck on those number, they will need to buy again to earn more. The ranking will be very expensive to them, and the merit abuse will be so easy to see. They will  get a red tag doing that.

Account sales have been a very crucial aspect of this forum in the past couple of years. Throughout my seven years here, I've seen many accounts come and go. Nowadays, it's frowned upon more than it was a few years back. It is virtually impossible to prevent it with technical limitations as most of them can be easily bypassed.

From 2014-2016 (or even 2017) account trading was, I assume, at its peak. I can't even remember how many accounts and people I've befriended losing their accounts to random hackers and account sales were so common that you could find lots of accounts in the digital goods section. The introduction of merit system halted the abuse of farming accounts, selling them, creating a new one and repeating the cycle indefinitely.

In short:

Account trading is heavily frowned upon, I personally negative trust any account seller I come by. However, it cannot be limited by the administration as it would be fairly easy for the sellers and buyers to avoid any repercussions. The merit system has been doing wonders in terms of preventing account farming to sell them afterwards. I should also mention that signature campaigns, which was the most important reason for people to buy accounts, is improving. Having more active managers who can spot discrepancies among the applicants. With that, there have been an increase in the "supply" of accounts while the demand gets lower and lower every passing day.

You must not visit Meta all that often, because merit abuse has been discussed extensively ever since the merit system was implemented two years ago. 

Theymos isn't all that concerned about it since merits decay as they get sent, and in theory it should be a self-limiting problem.  And even though there are always examples floating around of members abusing the system, I don't think it's as serious an issue as you think.  Those dishonest account sellers and merit abusers were never going to give merits to you or any other member unless they got paid, so I would just put that thought out of your mind and not worry about it. 

I'm way more concerned about account sales than I am about merit abuse, though it doubly sucks when the two are combined like the example in the OP.  Anyway, good job bringing this knucklehead's shenanigans to light.

The merits in the  accounts that concern me. Smerites who must roam the local forum are locked. They need active and sharing friends. How can we prevent this abuse???  this is the subject we need to talk about.

Account sales are not prohibited per se, but are certainly not welcome:

I personally do not like people jumping the line because they cash-out a fast-track pass, especially nowadays, where ranking-up an account is not that easy, and by contrast, cheating the system is conceptually unethical.

The seller seems to be using a burner account, and is not using his real “recognized and trusted” account for his dealings. Of course, he could be trying to lure and scam potential buyers into thinking that he has the alleged 8 Full Member accounts. You never know (and less of all what surprises the accounts come with – i.e. plagiarized posts in their history, etc.).

Note: There seems to be some confusion here if the account seller is talking about merits which all Full Member accounts have (minimum 100), or sMerits (sendable merits), which in this case would likely be some original airdropped sMerits.

Is account sale legal? This jackals sells an full merits account (8 account) The side that saddens me is merit !

If unused merites are deleted after 1 month   While most people are waiting for rewards, jackals keep them.

(Translate)
I am one of the most recognized and trusted members of the forum. 8 immaculate full member accounts from 2015 2016 2017. I want 1.25 ethereum of them. There is a discount in bulk purchase. Escrow is accepted through confidentiality agreements. After the escrow is selected from the reliable members of the forum and the money is paid, the accounts are exposed and delivered including their mails. I do not accept returns after the payment has been transferred to escrow and after the accounts have been decrypted, but you have the freedom to get confirmation about the cleanliness and security of accounts from escrow. There is no negative and positive trust. Today, full member accounts from btc paid signature campaigns earn an average of $ 300 400 per month, and compare pricing. You can earn unpredictable income by being at the forefront of projects to be announced as in the old times. The signature business is a surprise egg. I wish all the new owners good luck

(orginal)

(Translate)
Sales are up to date. I will give 8 accounts for 6 ethereum. There are merits in the accounts. Those who could not have made negative, account sale is free in the forum

(orginal)